NASA Parodies Reach New Level of Awkwardness 28
MMBK writes "NASA TV recently produced six movie-trailer parodies about current projects for a 'themed exhibit at an international conference.' But for the most part, the attempt remains pretty corny, far, far away from the imaginative, inspiring work of space artists like Bruce McCall."
Sure, Give NASA a Shoestring Budget and Then Laugh (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyway, what do you expect? Our elected officials cut NASA's budget and then you expect them to come out with award winning promotional materials? I'm glad marketing and publicity are the first things to get cut and not, you know, the actual James Webb Space Telescope.
Personally, if I was NASA, I would have just commissioned Apple Daily to make the videos for me. I actually started preferring their news style to Fox News and CNN [youtube.com] despite my inability to understand Chinese. I don't know if Adult Swim commissions them or if they're just rebranding Next Media's productions but they sure are hilarious [slashdot.org]. I'm probably not your average consumer but seeing the first of those videos on Adult Swim just made me want to see more. NASA should have just invited their reporters out with no translators and let them make the promotional videos as a poignant stunt to remind the public how little taxpayer funding they're getting these days [slashdot.org]. Here's to hoping private industry picks up the slack otherwise we're never getting off this rock.
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So you were forced to watch this [youtube.com] and this [youtube.com]
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I was thinking more along the lines of this: http://www.estesrockets.com/ [estesrockets.com]
Hey, at least they get something up in the air . . .
Now, if Estes brings out a NASA PowerPC Mars lander . . . I'm buying!
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Well, I've been planning something slowly with a few people. Unfortunately, we have lots of brainpower, but not a lot of capital. A bit better more comfortable than a Saturn V, a bit more stylish than a Soyuz. :)
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Well, that depends on which nomad.
PBN-1 Nomad [wikipedia.org]
GAF Nomad [wikipedia.org]
SS Nomadic [wikipedia.org]
Chevrolet Nomad [wikipedia.org]
or the Nomad MK-15c [memory-alpha.org]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Eldavojohn, I agree with you: the videos are not that terrible.
I would add that the first one is about the first humanoid robot in space, to be launched soon. If this proves popular, this may help to direct funds to more scientifically oriented missions, instead of this obsession with sending people in space.
This is a touchy topic of course; that might explain the rather slanted tone of the story. Oh, and I checked McCall's work. A bit too corny for me, except the poster he did for 2001 Space Odyssee.
Bob, not Bruce (Score:2)
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No they didn't. [wikipedia.org] Yet so many people think they did. It's odd.
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Our elected officials cut NASA's budget..
No they didn't. Yet so many people think they did. It's odd.
You're not very good at government budget speak. When a given agency's budget is increased by:
1. less that it was in a prior year
3. less than promised for this year from several years ago
4. less than what its administrators want
5. less than some other agency's increase
The budget was slashed! Oh noes!
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No they didn't. Yet so many people think they did. It's odd.
Yes, they did.
Linking to a web-page that has no numbers newer than 2007 (and the latest "news" on which talk about a preliminary plan outlined in February) isn't goingto make reality go away.
It's not hilarious but (Score:1)
It's kinda cute and I learned something. At least I think I did. Is that robot for real or what? Now I'm confused.
The problem with parodies (and this isn't really a parody - it's not mocking anything) is that it's hard to know what to take seriously.
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Yes, that robot is currently on the ISS. http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-89851.html [newkerala.com]
I didn't see any articles that talk about after it was brought up though.
"But for the most part, the attempt remains..." (Score:2)
Hmph ... (Score:2)
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"Good news, everyone! Due to budget cutbacks, I've hired a new, expendable crew—made entirely of robots!"
clearly..... (Score:1)
An uninspired effort from NASA?!?!? (Score:2)
The hell you say!
Ouch! (Score:2)
It's rare that I'll say this, but these are painful to watch and I wish I had not wasted six minutes of my life watching those.
iMovie '11 (Score:2)
I hate to say it, but they really shoulda just waited a few weeks and done this in iMovie '11 with that trailer creation thing they spent an hour discussing.
That, or like someone said earlier, just contract them out to Futurama... The Simpsons shill for Butterfinger, why can't Futurama for NASA?
NASA should video all (Score:1)
intentional (Score:3, Informative)
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Scene transitions (Score:2)
The bright white flash style of screen transition should be used sparingly. The first video makes copious use of it and it's very distracting.
Scrubbing through a couple other videos, it looks pieced together by an amateur with no scene seemingly longer than 5 or 10 seconds.
Possibly better off as a slideshow.
The way it's supposed to be (Score:2)
They're rocket scientists, not cinematographers, so cut some slack on the production values.